


Alterra

by Eva_Hoshizora



Category: Subnautica (Video Game)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Original Character(s), Original Story - Freeform, Original work - Freeform, Slow Burn, Slow To Update, long prologue
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:41:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23510233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eva_Hoshizora/pseuds/Eva_Hoshizora
Summary: Alice is a Researcher in (TBN) Sector.During the Meteor Shower, she did a small mistake that could cost her life, but to her luck (or not), she was able to find an alive Architect.
Relationships: Le-On/Alice, Original Character/Original Character
Comments: 6
Kudos: 12





	Alterra

**Author's Note:**

> For the record: The Prologue is 12 pages long, but the rest of the chapters will not be that long.  
> Or at least I don't think they will be? I just finished writing it lol.
> 
> This story is a collaboration between me and Nao-Hoshizora (DA). And the art is by Nao.  
> I will draw some pictures for the story as well, but not right now.
> 
> If you read my previous works (like Embrace the Void), you already know that I add pictures to the story, and this one will follow that trend as well!  
> Have a good time reading, and let me know if you read it in one sitting ;)

4546B - 2180

* * *

4546B is a big and rich world, with various locations and sectors, having a beautiful ecosystem. A long and rich history and even undiscovered buildings detailing the history of the Architects of the old.

The planet originally took a great hit due to the Kharaa bacteria when the Architects brought it over for study. And because of such the last Sea Emperor at the time was imprisoned and tested on. Their children were hatched by the only survivor from the accident in 2178.

After the survivor was able to return home, and Alterra learned of 4546B value, they prepared teams and sent them to the planet for study and collection of raw resources.

* * *

Alice Denvers, she is your typical ice blue-eyed girl with long caramel hair and pale complex. As much she looks like the girls from old movies that would be pretty but stupid, she is one of the smartest researchers in her team.

She used to dye her hair a darker color, but it just started to feel wrong after a while, so she decided to embrace who she was and ignore her peer’s comments. Her effort paid off.

Coming from a medium class family, no one expected much from her, maybe marrying off to some rich old man, but instead, she studied and worked hard to become one of Alterra’s researchers.

Her work was simple, she was to scout, locate the Architects structures, catalog them and make a base near to study the location. She was on her third base when she received a call from the HQ informing her that the meteor shower was coming way earlier than expected and that she was to flee immediately before it hit her main base.

Alice sighed at that, she was nearly finished with the research she was doing on the cache she was present at, but diligently uploaded her research and went to her seamoth to prepare to return to the main base to get in the escape pod.

But… things wouldn’t be that simple.

As soon as she left the cave she was in, she had forgotten the Leviathan that lives in the waters nearby the area she was in and didn’t activate the silent mode - that was newly added since she was doing something so dangerous - and attracted the unwanted attention.

She heard it’s scream, loud whale-like noise and she put her mask on, forced the seamoth to its side and kicked herself out of it, with enough impulse for the creature to gulp the seamoth but not her.

The Leviathan was gorgeous, it was a deep blue color with yellow neon-like stripes along with its eel-like body, the creature was over 200 meters long and its head was big enough for it to eat a whale in a single bite.

She swam as fast as she could back to the cave, as it was her only safety from the creature at the time, being 800m below the surface of the water, she wasn’t sure what she was going to do as she returned to her base. Already calling the administration of her area for help.

“Alice, what’s going on? We just lost the signal of your seamoth.” Alice was incredibly relieved at hearing the voice of her old friend Jonas. He was always sweet and never wanted more than her friendship. Which worked for both of them, as she was married to her job.

“I forgot to turn the silent mode on, Eelent ate it.” She said uncomfortably. “I can make another one, but I don’t have another silencer nor the depth upgrade, I’m 800m underwater as well, there’s no way I can get to the surface in time without a seamoth or a seatruck.”

Her voice shook for a moment. Realization settled in. She has enough nourishment for about a week, water wasn’t a problem with her filter. But she didn’t expect to be there for more than 3 weeks’ time, so she never made an aquarium.

“You called that thing Eelent?” Jonas asked bewildered. “You will need to explore the caves you are in because if you don’t, you might as well tell me goodbye now.” He said saddened and Alice took a second to realize what he said.

“Can you send me the blueprints to make a seaglider?”

“On it.”

She felt relieved as soon as she received the blueprint. He also sent her other blueprints for survival that normally would be received in survival mode. She didn’t want to activate survival mode on her PDA, which would distress her more than help.

She had scanned everything in her area, after all, losing everything in order to have a ‘maybe’ chance of survival? No way. She checked what she had and then made the seaglider before anything else.

Once she finished the seaglider, she moved to the command room to check her power and other things. Her water and power were on the high ends, however, the nuclear energy cells she had wouldn’t work forever, so she had to think about what to do.

She checked the cells, and in theory - if she didn’t waste much energy - she had maybe 8 days of energy left.

Eight days to survive.

Eight days to find another way to generate power.

Either that or find a way out of this place, either didn’t sound the best.

How much she regretted her decision of exploring the empty, even after she was warned this could have happened.

* * *

Once she felt like she was ready enough, she took her first step out of the base with a sense of dread. If she didn’t find something, she was going to die, so she had to choose between being devoured alive or slowly starve to death. That is if she didn’t drown first.

She debated with herself for a few seconds whether or not it was worth the stress to try to survive, but she decided that it was. She would fight for her life until the end.

After hyping herself up, she stepped outside the base and decided to follow the structure she was studying. She didn’t really want to go too further on it originally because she found what she was interested in and would return later with more people to find more. However, that idea was scrapped once they learned of the giant Leviathan, as it would simply destroy any cyclops that tried to approach the area.

If not eat it.

She went further than she ever expected, feeling anxiety swelling when she realized that she might really drown as she couldn’t find any air pockets, only to feel immense relief when she saw the flora that would give her some oxygen.

They called those bubble fruits. They are very small fruits that burst in a colorful smoke, that smoke produces oxygen and other things, it smelled sweet, so she wouldn’t complain as she replenished her oxygen tank and had some space to breathe as well.

She then ventured further after gathering some of the fruits just to make sure that she would be alright.

Squeezing through a hole, she found herself in a beautiful cave. With blue glowing grass all-around an Architect building. There was a pretty light purple seaweed between the grass, she moved nearer to see it better and noticed that there were small adorable fish hiding in the seaweed leaves.

She carefully scooped one of them in her hands, analyzing the tiny creature that was barely the size of her thumb. It was a cute chub fish that reminded her of a clownfish in body structure, but it had long antennae on the sides of its face like a catfish and was a pretty shade of light blue, similar to the grass.

It didn’t seem scared of her as she brushed her fingers against it, its scales felt so silky, it was almost like they were cloth. Out of curiosity, she also touched the grass and noticed that the sensation was similar.

So that was the fish form to protect itself from predators. But what predators could it have? She wondered as she looked around, thinking. Much to her pleasure, there wasn’t a comical moment of her going face to face with such a creature.

But she did notice there were others of this species and some crab-like creatures she saw before on the surface. Cave Crawlers she thinks they are called? They are an annoyance, so she didn’t even bother to check on them.

She let the little fish go, but it still stuck near to her when she started gliding towards the building. She noticed more of the little ones were moving near to her, and she found that adorable. She stopped at the entrance of the building just to wave them bye, they scattered at that and she entered.

Taking a deep breath of relief as fresh oxygen hit her, she walked around the place, her hand touching the walls as she tried to see if there were any secret passages. She never found any personally, but it never cost to try.

And like she expected, she didn’t find anything as she moved around the place. There were just three floors with substantial structures, but nothing that she never saw. She even grabbed a few ion cubes and found one of the famed tablets.

She was happy that she found a purple one, as that tended to unlock the most doors.

As she went up, she noticed that there was a relatively hidden area, and she went to investigate it, much to her surprise, she saw a huge egg inside a container. She wondered how the egg even was brought to this place.

Although the egg didn’t have any defining features, she assumed it was the Leviathan's baby. She looked around a bit to see if she could find something to free the egg, and she found a control panel near the window to the ocean. She looked through it curiously, only to have her eyes to meet the glowing yellow ones, hearing the whale screech as the Leviathan hit against the building.

Lights flashed red as there was a warning of the place being attacked, the little robots that repair the structure rushing to repair any damage that the Leviathan caused, but the tremor was enough to throw Alice down, making her smack her head hard on the floor.

Before she lost consciousness, she just heard her PDA beeping, warning her of an incoming call.

* * *

Alice’s parents loved her very much. She didn’t have anything to complain about.

Her mother was very sweet and her father was loving. She grew up with plenty of praise while being taught to be humble and honest. Her family supported all of her decisions, that is until she decided to join Alterra in order to give her parents a better life.

They fought over it, and the fight ended with Alice wishing she was never born to them. She regretted those words for so long, however, there was nothing she could do about it as was going to the planet 4546B.

The last time she saw her parents, her mother was crying, pleading to her to not go and her father turned his back to her. They never called.

Was that the right choice to make?

* * *

Alice woke up feeling groggy, she looked around trying to remember where she was, she saw her PDA and grabbed it, seeing she had lost calls from Jonas. She called him back, being greeted by a very worried male.

“Alice? You weren’t responding, we thought you died!” He said rushed and she took a moment to process his words. “Are you alright? Scans say that you are bleeding.”

“I think I have a concussion.” She said slowly as she dragged herself to a wall to rest against it. The lights of the room turned on again, she embraced herself as the Leviathan hit the building once more, noticing that someone was in the incubation area. “I’m not exactly in danger, but it’s not safe either.” She took one of her water bottles and took small sips of water.

“I can hear it, what is that noise? Is there some sort of earthquake?” Jonas asked, trying to locate her. “You are 720m below the surface, at least you made some progress.”

“Maybe I can find a portal that will take me up.” She said as she noticed the lights going off and the Leviathan stopping its attacks. “Eelent is attacking whenever it sees lights, so I need to find a way to move with the place shaking or free its egg or something. Maybe then I can leave this place.” She took a deep breath and felt a sharp pain. “I… I definitely have a concussion.” She teared up.

“Okay, okay.” Jonas took his attention away from her. “I’m sending you the necessary information for your PDA to translate how to use the Architect’s equipment. However, it might not work on all of it, so you need to be careful.” He warned her.

“I will.” She agreed and put her bottle away, finishing half of it. “I will need some good sleep after this. Goodness…” She crawled rather than try to walk, like she predicted, as soon the lights turned on, Eelent started to hit the building. She wasn’t sure what it expected to achieve by doing that, but she did her best to get to the control panel.

As soon as they started to translate it, Eelent stopped its attacks, swimming away. She didn’t feel any relief as she knew exactly what it was going to do, so she did her best to find how to turn on the protection field and activated it once she finally found how.

As she expected, it rammed into the field but seemed fine otherwise. She now took her time to learn how to read the runes and typed down what she thought would help. The glass started to slide down, creating an opening big enough for the egg, now she just had to open the container.

The Leviathan was circling as it noticed what she was doing, she wondered if it knew she was trying to help or if it just didn’t want to hit the field again. After a bit, she was able to learn how to open the container and the egg was finally freed as the glass lifted. She didn’t know how she would move the egg though, so she looked at the eel leviathan and took a deep breath, looking around for a safe place.

When she noticed that there wasn’t any, she had a decision to make.

She hit the button to deactivate the shield and she ran like crazy to get out of the Leviathan’s way as it roared and started to swim towards the base. She hoped that it would only grab the egg and leave, but she still didn’t want to risk it.

However, to her relief, that’s exactly what it did, she held herself as it pulled the egg out and went into the abyss, its weight made the base tilt and she had to use the little strength she had to hold herself up, the structure adjusting itself upright and closing the open glass, putting Alice back into complete safety. Or relative safety she preferred to think.

Once she realized she was alright, and that was just a scare, she took a deep breath in relief and sat down, hugging her legs as she called Jonas again. He didn’t pick up.

She slowly laid down to try to get a bit of rest, just to calm down and recover from the concussion enough to walk without her stomach-churning.

* * *

She felt like she was floating in nothingness, something called out to her, a voice that was so gentle and yet so strong. She didn’t understand what it was saying, she wanted herself to float in the darkness in silence.

The voice became more frantic, worried but cold. It was weird.

Alice felt something wrapping around her mind, it was warm, very warm. And then light.

* * *

She was startled awake, her PDA ringing and she answered it.

“Jonas?” She asked tiredly.

“It’s the Director.” Another male voice said. “I want the status of your mission. We found a living Architect and we need you to get to Sector Zero to take Robin back to Alterra.” He said and Alice had to take a sharp breath.

“I can’t. Sector Zero is on the other side of the _world_.” She reminded him. “Even if I could, I don’t know if I would survive that, so I refuse such a mission and request to be sent home, I almost lost my life and sustained a serious injury.”

The Director was in silence for a moment.

“If you can return, then do, otherwise consider yourself terminated.” He said and hung up on her. She tried to call Jonas, but he didn’t answer.

“Great. I will sue his ass once I’m back. He knows all calls are recorded, does he really expect me to die?” She grumbled as she finally was able to get up, still not being able to walk fully straight.

Her stomach didn’t settle down, she felt a bit dizzy and her balance wasn’t exactly perfect, so she used the walls to keep herself straight as she walked, trying her best to keep on her feet. She took slow steps to the last floor, looking around as she noticed the changes in the room.

The voice she heard in her dreams beamed in her mind, causing her a huge headache.

 _Turn back, leave this place._ The voice said so loudly. Her head felt like it was going to burst at the sudden loud noise. She put her hand on the altar and tried to stable herself. _Leave before I destroy you._

Empty threats. If the voice could do that, it would have already. But the constant hammering was just too much and she ended up putting out the little she had left in her stomach.

There was a deafening silence as she did so. All she heard was herself.

Once her stomach was satisfied with her, she took a few steps back and then finally walked up the stairs to the control panel she could see in the altar and used the PDA to translate it.

The voice again was in her mind, this time softer, gentler. _Are you sick?_ It asked, as if curious. Although it seemed to be softer, it lacked any real emotion. As if it was asking because it has to be asked rather than genuine concern.

Alice didn’t reply as she finished translating. Reading over her PDA.

She sat down as she felt her head throb in pain, the giant cube moving a bit, she took too long to notice it grabbing her and lifting her off the platform. Blinking in confusion, she watched the thing for a long moment.

“...I have a concussion.” She replied to the voice, hoping that the cube would settle her down. For her relief, it does just that. “I sustained it when I hit my head due to the Leviathan ramming into the base and made me lose my balance.”

There was silence for a long moment before the cube seemed to shut down, satisfied with the answer. Once she had a moment to catch her breath, she took a few steps to download the data from the precursors to her PDA, the cube flashing again as she did so. _What are you doing?_ It asked.

“Downloading and translating data.” She answered calmly. “Reading on the past of the ones who created this structure to learn more about them and maybe find a way to go home.” She mumbled the last part, knowing that it would hear her anyway.

It was silent once more, the data download was blocked at a certain part, she thought it was weird since she knew her PDA could take it. She assumed the voice was blocking some data from her, but it didn’t seem to be anything too important either, as she found that there is a code to open a door behind her to a portal that would take her to another place that was only 200m below the surface. That meant she could return to her base and go home.

As she touched the panel to open the door, the cube showed signs of life again, and she noticed that it pulsed while she heard the voice. _I have a task for you._ It said and she looked marveled at it, the realization that the structure was talking to her.

“S-sure?” She stuttered. “As long it’s doable.”

 _There is a cave below the cache, there you will find a construct. I need you to activate the transfer._ She was confused. Curious but confused.

“Why should I comply?” She asked carefully.

 _I will offer you knowledge of my people in return._ Well, that picked Alice’s interest. She was so curious.

“What guarantee can I have that you won’t just…” She trailed off, kill her? If it wanted that, it would have done it when she was in its grasp. But then again, it needs her now, but won’t need her after. “...what guarantee can I have that you won’t just kill me?” She was able to say, noticing how hard it was to speak.

 _...you can only trust my word, as I have no way to prove my intentions._ It replied simply and she made a noise similar to a ‘huh’, but not quite. She then thought about it for a moment before deciding to just help the voice.

What could go wrong right? She was fully aware that it could and probably would just kill her, but at least she would get to see what it meant with “transfer”. Walking down was so much easier than up, she hoped that she could still swim, however, seeing as her motor skills were a bit lacking, that might prove to be a challenge.

What an annoyance. She never expected she would have immediate effects with a concussion. But then again, she didn’t actually know how long she was out. She forgot to ask Jonas.

If she fainted for more than 2 hours and then slept for a period of over 4 hours, she probably was in the early stages and still had a few more problems to come. But considering she can’t even tell how long she rested, it might have been longer due to her foggy mind.

She forgot for a moment that outside was water, so she nearly drowned in her confusion as she went out and then went back in, coughing. She just sat down for a long moment. Deciding, she took one of the bars she had and finally ingested some food.

After finishing her halved bottle of water and her snack bar, she felt a bit better, put her mask on and finally went properly on the water, searching under the structure for the cave the voice mentioned, which took a bit longer than she wanted to admit.

Once she entered the cave, she navigated slowly to make sure she knew the path back. But that would probably be unnecessary considering she entered a pocket of air and fell down.

Before she touched the ground, green particles caught up to her and she floated the rest of the way down slower. She just laid down on the floor, her heart racing. She took small breaths to calm her heart. She closed her eyes and just relaxed for a moment.

* * *

She had no idea how long she was out, she just knew that she felt stiff and thirsty. So she sat slowly down and took small sips from her other bottle of water, once she felt a bit better, she got up and looked around the cave, the walls were carved, but unlike the structures, they weren’t of the material that the Architects created.

The carvings were of times unknown. They seemed to detail the story of the planet she was in, showing pictures of Leviathans, especially the sea emperor.

She took her PDA and started to take pictures of the walls. Noticing that there were things that were more recent like the Degasi ship falling and then how the survivor saved the Sea Emperor babies.

She wondered who made those as she kept walking down, noticing that the last one there was a lady beside a creature, a hand over her belly. That seemed to be after the Alterra carvings.

So this was predicting the future. She wondered who that lady could be. Maybe Robin, considering what the Director said earlier. But there were other carvings that could elude to Sector Zero as well, this one just felt out of place compared to others.

As if it was fresh.

She touched the stone and as she thought, it had to be fresh, it felt warm.

Or at least she thought so. She then went back to walking, forgetting to take the picture of that last one. Not that it mattered anyway. At least she thought so, feeling too tired to want to go back and deal with it.

Someone else could come there and take the pictures.

As she walked down the stone corridor, it started to turn more artificial, and then, she was inside another structure. It looked a bit different from the normal. She looked around it and the first thing she noticed is that there were tubes filled with _something_. She walked near and then realized, the first one was leather.

She took her scanner and analyzed it. She was surprised at reading that it was made from various species. Around 27.

There was a huge amount of compatibility with humans however, about 45%. She wasn’t sure if that made her relieved or even more worried. She scanned the bones next, the information was that they were indeed a built structure rather than a natural one. It looked rather beautiful though.

And the last thing she scanned was the seeming organs according to her PDA, they didn’t look like much, but she was seeing an extraterrestrial creature. She can’t just assume such regardless, she supposed.

As she moved towards the control panel, she took her PDA to translate, but she noticed there was only one button that was functional. ‘Commence’. So, after a minute of thinking, she pressed it, starting the machine.

All she could do was stare in awe as the machine sprung to life, the huge thing in front of her started working and slowly built the Architect body - or at least what she assumed was the architect.

And before she could analyze it better, there was a flash of light and an extremely nauseating feeling as the voice from before told her to stand down, the structure starting to break apart due to the strain of being used again.

Although she didn’t like that, she rolled under the control panel, her hands over her head as the cave collapsed around her.

Her fate seemed sealed. She was going to die, alone, in the darkness.

Alice sobbed as the realization settled in. She fainted due to all the stress and her concussion. Her only chance of returning home slipping through her fingers.

* * *

She felt dry and warm. Something she didn’t in months, but her throat was dry and sore. She was definitely getting sick, which bothered her, but it wasn’t something she would complain about.

As she woke up, she slowly sat down and noticed that she wasn’t in the cave anymore. She was inside the structure, on one of the beds that she would normally make for her bases. She checked her PDA and immediately took notice that her habitat builder battery was a bit lower.

That meant someone used it to make her a bed. But who would have even found her? She called Jonas, still no response. A bit betrayed, she moved to leave the bed when a voice stopped her in her tracks. She froze in place.

“I recommend you to stay in bed until complete recovery, your biological body needs time to heal from the injuries sustained during the cave-in.” The voice was still in her mind, but there was some sort of… ‘grr’ behind it. Similar to a purr, but not quite, a bit rougher.

She turned her head slowly to the voice and her heart skipped a beat. Not of excitement, but of sheer terror. The _thing_ was twice her size, maybe a bit bigger than that. It… reminded her of a centaur, the top half was reminiscent of a human while the bottom half was more… deer-like.

It was looming over her, she could feel the heat it irradiated. Her gaze focusing on its chest, the symbol on it reminded of a flower, maybe a water lily? It’s body structure looked mineral rather than organic.

She wanted to touch it.

It said something, but her mind was in another world until she felt herself being lifted by an arm that was detached from its body, Alice snapped out of it as she looked at its face. Blinking slowly as she looked its ‘face’ over. It had the human egg-shaped head but had a glowing visor rather than eyes, a faceplate that turned into horns on the sides and some crevices that irradiated the same glow.

“Do you require sustenance?” It asked that she assumed for the second time.

“...some water.” She answered after a second. It put her down and in a blink, it was gone. “What did I put myself into?” Alice wondered as she looked at her PDA, trying to call Jonas again.

This time, he picked up, much to her relief.

“Alice? We thought you were dead, your GPS is offline.” Jonas said, confused.

“The Director might have turned it off from there, it still works for me. I will send you the coordinates of my location.” She answered and took a deep breath. “What is happening on Sector Zero? He tried to send me there, but due to my circumstances, I can’t really go. I need to return home.”

“An alive Architect specimen was found, but due to Robin’s betrayal, we might lose it.” Jonas explained. “We-”

“Specimen?” Alice said with such disgust in her voice, making Jonas frown. “They are intelligent beings, not a _specimen_ , if you think such, I’m going to dissect your ass once I’m back.”

“I didn’t mean it like that, don’t kill me, Alice,” Jonas said half-joking. “I don’t think like that, but we don’t have another way to refer to them. They are not human.” Jonas was quiet for a moment. “You do look a lot paler than normal, what’s going on?”

“Well, for starters, I have a concussion. I hit my head pretty bad and a cave-in happened. A centaur non-organic thing seems to have saved me and told me to stay put until I heal.” She explained it the best way she could. “By what you are saying… it might be an Architect.”

“You found another alive… thing?” He wasn’t sure what to call them since she hates the word specimen. “Architect.”

“I am not sure.” She bit her lip. “I will send you a scan or a picture as soon as it returns. I expect orders once you call back, and I really hope they are for me to go home, with or without it.”

“Will do.” Jonas agreed and then hung up on her.

She laid back down to get some rest, not really knowing what to do as now she was at the mercy of what she assumed was one of the Architects. She closed her eyes for a moment to rest and next thing she knew, she was being lifted once more.

She opened her eyes and it had one of the detached arms offering her a water bottle. Accepting it sheepishly, she took a small sniff of the water before taking a sip to make sure it wasn’t ocean water. Much to her relief, it felt like the water she would normally drink from the filter she had back at her base.

She took small sips until she finished the bottle. It took the bottle from her and put her back down on the bed, making sure to cover her with the sheets, much to her confusion. Once she was all settled, it moved again away from her before returning with something that she didn’t recognize as it typed down.

Alice recognized the behavior, she was being studied.

Much like she was studying it, it was studying her. She slowly sat down, the Architect tilted its head, that ‘grr’ sound again. She took her PDA and took a picture of it and sent it to Jonas, hoping that it wouldn’t just kill her for that.

“You could have requested for information if that is what you wished. Sharing information is something we are interested in, the lack of communication seems to not be normal from your species. Are you somehow malfunctioning?” It asked and she was speechless for a second.

“N-no. I’m just… scared.” She answered after a few seconds. “I’m uncomfortable and scared. I think that’s the best way to describe.” She mumbled it and looked away.

“I present you with no threat. My intention is to study and learn about your species. We never had real contact with your species in a very long time. Maybe once or twice, but I do not record nor have enough information about such.” Alice was a bit confused at the way it spoke to her. It was robotic in a sense, but it tried to somehow imitate her pattern of speech. Was it trying to give her comfort?

“Well… might I request you to come with me to our base in orbit?” She asked tentatively and it seemed to think about the request.

“As long there’s an agreement to give me the freedom to do my own research, I approve your request.” It said and she was relieved.

“I’m sure that will be granted. Thank you… uh…” She blinked. “What is your name?”

“We do not have such an abstract idea. My original designation was more than enough. Do you require me to have a name?” It asked and she nodded. “Then you shall offer me one, as I do not know what type of designation your species would require of me.”

Alice was taken aback. She was supposed to name that thing? It looked like a deer, but naming it Bambi would be cruel of her. Minotaur would also be cruel. It looked more like a centaur, so maybe a centaur name?

What would be considered a centaur name though? She was just making things even more complicated for herself. So maybe a popular human name instead was in order. The first thing that popped into her mind was David, but that was such a stupid name. David Allis forgives her, but his name was stupid.

“How about… Frank?” She regretted the moment she said it. “Oh, Leon!” She said in excitement. “I think Leon would fit you.” It was an ironic name since they looked like a centaur deer and Leon was supposed to be derived from Lion. So she decided to name them something that would probably be more like a predator.

She couldn’t resist the smile.

She was imagining what a deer would look like with the mineral armor that Leon has.

“Leon it shall be.” It agreed and noted down her behavior. “Do your species lack the capability to make a decision in a more prompt manner?”

“Not quite. Just that naming things is a huge part of our culture. Once we name something, we don’t really change its name. So we do give it some thought.” Alice tried her best to explain it. “So… we get attached to that name and it should be fitting of who is receiving it.”

“So Frank - as you said at first - wasn’t acceptable for me?” She was weirded out at the way it presented the question, the Architect color changed from it’s normally settled purple to a strangely warm green.

“It felt wrong, Frank is more of a name for someone that is older, at least in my eyes. So naming you Leon felt a bit better. But maybe my reasoning is a bit dumb - as we would call it.” She debated whenever or not to tell him, she decided on doing so. “Leon is a variant of Lion. Lions are predators and mountain lions would predate on deers. Which is what your lower part reminds me of.”

“So I remind you of a deer - I shall assume it’s a herbivore - and you decided to name me Leon, a predator?” It questioned and Alice nodded. “Seems… counterproductive.”

“It’s called irony.”

Both of them were silent for a while. The only sound being the constant typing from Leon’s detached arms.

Alice sighed and laid back down on the bed, hugging the pillow a bit to sleep. Leon seemed to take note of such action.

* * *

The Architect analyzed the situation ever since they first felt another intelligent form to come to the area they were uploaded to. They tried to bring the creature’s attention to following the cables of the cache, with small pulses of light, but the creature's intelligence wasn’t focused on such curiosity.

So all that they could do at the time, was wait. The wait felt much longer than whatever else they felt. The comforting presence was always there. Always studying the cache, translation, analyzing, researching.

Such a thorough analysis was something that picked Leon’s interest in that human. They wanted to attract the curious creature somehow, but there was no way they could actually do it. She was just too far for them to use telepathy. She needed to be closer.

And for a long time, the human routine was the same, study the cache, move out, come back, analyze, move out, come back, be handsy, move out and be away for a longer period of time.

This went for a relatively short period compared to the time they waited before she arrived. But it somehow felt longer as they wanted the human to come to them. Maybe the human could finalize what they started.

Their previous body got extremely injured due to the Leviathan’s attack when they took the egg to try to study the creature’s immunity to the bacteria. That didn’t work out very well as the Leviathan took a bite out of them. So they started the process to create a new body and uploaded their consciousness to the transference, however, something went wrong and now they were waiting for so long.

The human picked their interest during the meteor shower, they started to finally move towards the structure, so they tried to guide the human through the caves, even shining small lights on the oxygen plants, assuming they might need it just in case they are a ground dweller rather than an ocean creature.

When the human was near enough for them to contact them telepathically, they decided to not do so, watching the human carefully as she looked at the plants and then looked mesmerized by the little fish that adorned the long-abandoned place. Letting the human explore a bit.

The Leviathan was unexpectedly attracted to the sudden activity of the Architect, their interest in the human was enough to alert the creature of the facility’s energy. And because of such, they decided to try to send her away before she could get hurt or killed.

The Architect tried to contact her, trying to push her to leave, but she didn’t hear them, or she ignored their voice. Much to their surprise, she was able to get the egg out and send the Leviathan away, although with a few breaks in between.

Once she was finally in range for them to communicate with her, they spoke, asking her to leave, and she didn’t reply at first, they waited as she started to eject something from her body. They weren’t sure what was going on with the girl at that point.

The two talked for a bit and when she was about to leave, they asked her to start the transference of their conscience to their body, and she accepted such request, much to the Architect’s relief.

The transference took a while to start, but once the Architect had it’s body again, it moved fast to rescue the human. Moving fast but still at a safe pace to take her back to the structure, once they were inside, the Architect took the human’s PDA and downloaded it’s data, reading all they could about the human to try to keep her alive.

Using her habitat builder, they made the bed and laid her on it. Putting the PDA back down and then starting to do their workaround to activate the sector and send a message to all alive Architects and perform the protocol in case the infection ended to call others of their species.

Only for Leon to find out that presently, they were the last one left.

**Author's Note:**

> https://twitter.com/eva_hoshizora


End file.
